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Today we are pleased to welcome the amazingly talented Bill Condon to DeeScribe Writing. Bill is celebrating his new book, All of Us Together and he has some great writing tips, and at the end of the post we’ll also talk about the book itself.

On four occasions Bill Condon’s novels have been shortlisted for the Children’s Book Council Book of the Year Awards. In 2010 he won the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Young Adult Fiction. (Since then he hasn’t been able to find a hat big enough to fit him.) He lives on the south coast of NSW with his wife Di (Dianne) Bates.

All of Us Together

All of us Together is a junior fiction novel set in Australia’s Great Depression of the 1930s.

When John O’Casey leaves his family to go in search of work, his wife Margaret is left to raise their three young children, Daniel, Adelaide, and Lydia. Daniel, being the eldest, tries to take on the role of being a leader, but as he discovers, it’s hard to be a man, especially for a boy who’s only twelve-years old.

Although the events within these pages take place many years ago, it is not primarily an historical novel, but one that examines the lives of the same kind of down-to-earth people, who live and breathe today. This is about a family who remain hopeful and resilient, as they stand together through the hardest of times.

All of us Together is an uplifting story, told with poignancy and humour.

Bill’s Writing Tips

In 2015 I spent several months working on All Of Us Together, but I wasn’t happy with what I had, so I gave up, which is one of my many bad habits. At the start of this year I decided to change the story to first person, and when I did that I felt it worked much better, and so I kept on going. – Tip 1 – If your stories not working as well as you’d like, don’t be afraid to try a different approach.

I think first person enabled me (and hopefully the readers) to get closer to the action, and made the story more immediate and real.

The main character in the book is twelve-year-old Daniel. When his dad goes off in search of work, Daniel takes it on himself to bring some money into the home as best he can. Needless to say, all does not go smoothly. But the family sticks together and stays strong.

Daniel and his family are loosely based on my own family. He has two sisters, just like me, and he has loving, working class parents, just like I had. Once I’d recognised the similarities between Daniel and myself, the writing became easier. Tip 2 – Draw on your own experiences and the things you can relate to.

When I was young my parents sometimes told me of their experiences during the 30s. They didn’t tell me much – or perhaps I wasn’t listening very carefully – but it was enough to get me thinking about setting a story during the Depression.

One of the problems writers face is in finding a plot. This is particularly so in my case. I always struggle. Fortunately, this book came with a plot already built-in – the Great Depression of the 1930s. All drama needs obstacles for the characters to overcome. What better obstacle than a period in our history that impacted on the lives of so many Australians? Tip 3 – Historical stories can come with a readymade plot.

As with nearly everything I write, All Of Us Together has bits and pieces from my own life scattered through it. Some of the mischief I got up to as a child could fit into any era, so I didn’t find it at all daunting to write a book set so long ago. I also wasn’t perturbed that I was writing what many might perceive as a book about history. It was never that to me. Daniel and his family were just ordinary people – the kind who might be your neighbours today – doing their best to survive in a very tough time.

Because I’m not a history buff, and I doubt my readers will be either, I’ve kept the historical facts to a minimum. My research was confined to Google searches. There is lots of information, and photos about the Depression on-line. I saw one photo that gave me an idea for the story. It’s a picture of three or four boys, each aged around 13 or 14. They were living in a tent in the bush and shooting rabbits to get some money for their families. In my story there are two brothers who are out in the great beyond somewhere, living rough to try to help their family. They are heroes to Daniel and he is always searching for them. When he at last finds one of them, it isn’t at all what he was expecting. Tip 4 – Don’t become lost in your research.

I’ve never been any good at plotting a book. I just find little bits and pieces as I go – like that photo – and I very clumsily and slowly stick them all together. And then, after a year or so of stumbling around in the dark, I make my way to those magical words, The End! Tip 5 – There’s not ‘right’ way to write a book … do what works for you.

ALL of US TOGETHER REVIEW

In his latest book, All of Us Together, award winning author Bill Condon gets us right inside the head of main character, Daniel, right from the first page.

All of Us Together is set in the Great Depression of 1930 when families were being ripped about by poverty.

Unable to find work, Daniel’s beloved father has been forced to leave the family to seek employment further afield in the hope that he will soon have money to send home.

He leaves behind Daniel, his two sisters and his mother, trying to cope with his absence. Poverty forces Daniel into doing things he wouldn’t normally do and his strength and resolve are put to the test.

This realistic representation of a difficult time in history has clearly been well researched, and the characters are so real that the reader feels as if they are stepping back in time, straight into the lives of Daniel and his family.

Amidst the hardship though, there is love and hope and we see the characters grow and develop as they face the challenges that life throws at them.

The harsh realities of the Great Depression are depicted with sensitivity and authenticity, and All of Us Togetheris a book that would make a great family or classroom discussion piece.

Today my very good author/illustrator friend, Tania McCartney is joining me on the virtual deck for a cup of tea and a chat about how to write and illustrate a picture book. At the end of this post, she’s also offering readers the chance to win some great prizes.

Check out Tania’s great writing and illustrating tips at the end of this post.

Tania, tell us about Australia Illustrated.

Australia Illustrated is the very first picture book I’ve both written and illustrated and it was an incredible learning experience. The process was unusual in that I had pretty much carte blanche (with a pre-approved outline from publisher, EK Books). You may already know that in publishing, this is highly unusual.

Having this freedom was a real gift. Having written, edited, laid out, designed, collected, studied, read and enjoyed picture books for two or three decades now, I had zero experience in the actual process required to combine my own writing with my own illustration. In fact, to give you an idea of up how-ended my process was, I did the book cover first!

With this lack of experience, it would have been almost impossible for me to take the ‘roughs, storyboards, mock-ups, colour-palettes, character studies’ route that most picture book illustrators undergo. I didn’t have the know-how or skill, and given that Australia Illustrated is 96 pages and I had scant idea of what I was going to include in the book, having to do all that would have been my undoing!

Thankfully, I muddled my way through, and the end result is something pretty unusual—and something I’m actually proud of.

It’s clear that Tania enjoyed creating Australia Illustrated … and this book reflects her joy in being Australian.

Each page is full of vibrant, active illustrations that reflect well thought out and researched text.

Each state and territory of Australia is featured along with the food, flora, fauna, sport, customs people and places that make them unique … oh and did I mention food? There’s a lot of food in this book.

From the First People to washing lines and crocodiles, football and sunshine, koalas and akubras, skyscrapers and beaches that squeak, this 96-page picture book is a glorious tribute to this wide brown land and its rich and varied multicultural communities. Vibrantly illustrated with watercolour, ink and mono-printing, Australia: Illustrated not only celebrates the more ‘typical’ Australian flora, fauna and landmarks, it also showcases the everyday quirks and idiosyncrasies that make Australia unique: the many types of rain, Greek street food, Sydney ferries, cattle breeds, the plants of the Daintree. Even the quokka selfie epidemic is featured!

One of the things readers will love most about this book is that it’s so relateable. For adults it will conjure up childhood memories, for young readers it will inspire them to create them.

Australia Illustrated is beautifully produced by EK Books. It comes in a hard cover and with 96 pages will provide hours of entertainment and joy for readers of all ages in the classroom and home.

I learned that the best way to illustrate a book is to have courage and not think about it too much. There were moments on this journey when I was filled with absolute terror over how my images would be perceived—in terms of skill, style, content.

I also began questioning how things were unfolding and if I was on the ‘right track’. Whenever this happened, I had to shut this thought down, otherwise, I probably would have given up. And how did I shut the thought down? I told myself what ALL creators should be telling themselves—that I’m creating this book for me first, others second.

Many creators will tell you that they write for the reader but we HAVE to write for ourselves first. If we don’t, we wouldn’t enjoy the process (sorry, but I don’t want to write about boy superheros who live on the moon, even though millions of kids might love that!). We have to write and draw what WE personally love—to give us creative satisfaction and to do our best work. Then, as a massive side-bonus, if kids or adults or monkeys fall into our stories or our images and have a wonderful time there—that is what makes it doubly worthwhile. In fact, they say that once a book is published, it ceases to be yours—it becomes the reader’s. So I say make it yours while you can, then let it go!

I learned that a creative process should be an organic process, and that while having a plan or outline is important, allowing story and images to unfold has an intense magic in it. Good publishers know this. They know that stories can morph over time, and picture ideas can change and grow. The very best books come from trusting that organic process, and not stripping it of its essence with over-editing and over-thinking—or bowing down to what other people want or might expect.

I learned that illustrating books is an immense emotional, mental, physical and time investment (arguable even more so than writing one). You cannot be in this for the money. A hundred-thousand dollars probably wouldn’t cover the hours I put into Australia Illustrated, but the creative satisfaction and joy its creation brought me is priceless. It can’t be about money. If you make it about money, it will crush you with the fiscal unfairness of it all.

I learned that children’s book illustrations really do need to be highly professional and beautiful. I mean, I knew that already, but I learned it all over again on a deeply personal level. I have only just rekindled my love for illustration these past few years. My skills were rusted over, and I’ve had to relearn so very much. During the twelve months it took to create Australia Illustrated, my skills, naturally, bettered themselves, and I found myself looking back at my first images with some disdain. Luckily, I had also developed digital art skills during that year, and I was able to touch up first images to the standard I knew the book needed.

I learned that you Just Have To Throw Yourself In. During my [many] moments of self-doubt or angst of fear, I found the only way out was through. Just do it. When you do that, things unblock and flow. It worked for me every single time.

Dee asked me for five points, but I can’t resist one more—sorry, Dee! I learned that I want to do things differently next time. There are some splendid illustrators who keep the same style of art their entire career long—and it works beautifully for them. For me, I think creating in the same style forever would send me to the loony bin. I still love the style I’ve done in Australia Illustrated, but I’m ready to try something new for my next book (in fact, I’m currently creating several fully-digital works) and I can’t wait to see what style that will be. I have some ideas but I’ve not settled on something yet. Perhaps I’ll just let it unfold—pretty much like Australia Illustrated.

Australia Illustrated is published by EK Books and will be on sale 1 November in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the US, with a release date of 28 November in the UK. Hardcover, clothbound, 96 pages, AU$29.99, ISBN: 9781925335217 www.ekbooks.org

Does your study or studio ever get to the stage where the clutter stops you from working?

Are there books and papers piled so high on your desk, you can’t see your computer?

If this has NEVER happened to you, please share your secrets 🙂

But seriously, it’s not just the physical clutter that stops you from creating.

It can also be the mental clutter … the kind that goes on inside your head and your heart.

Recently, I co-founded KidLitVic2016, a conference in Melbourne in May attended by 160 delegates, 11 publishers and 1 literary agent.

We had talked about running a conference like this for a while because there was nothing of its kind in Melbourne.

I came up with the name, KidLitVic, set up the website and Facebook Page. My partner set up the business name and bank account, and we were off and running.

In the 12 months leading up to the event, my inbox overflowed with conference emails, and my mind was full of tasks, meetings, websites, content development, media campaigns and all the other associated detail that goes with organising a conference.

KidLitVic2016 was an amazing experience. I loved every minute of it. I loved spending time with all the authors and illustrators who came. I loved meeting all the wonderful publishing professionals, and I loved seeing people walk away from the conference feeling like they had gained something and it had encouraged them and helped the with their careers.

But during that time there was little room in my head for much of anything else.

It made me realise just how important it is to make space in your head in order to create.

I don’t know about you, but I find that mental clutter is the hardest kind to get rid of – and it’s what most hinders my creativity.

TIPS FOR CLEARING MENTAL CLUTTER

Here are some things you can do to clear your mental clutter:

Take a break from social media.

Make a list of all your deadlines and things you have to do. That way you don’t have to store all this information in your head.

Set up smart inboxes for your emails, so you can put aside those emails that don’t require your immediate attention. Just do a web search for “how to set up a smart mailbox” and you’ll find heaps of useful sites.

Take a walk – there’s nothing like fresh air and movement to free your mind.

Set aside free time for just being. Allow those creative ideas to come sneaking back.

Go away on a retreat … away from all the things that are cluttering your mind. You don’t have to go far and it doesn’t have to be for long, (a granny flat in the backyard will do) but it does help create room for new ideas and inspiration.

After the conference was over, I was not only inspired by all the fabulous people I had met and the things I had learned, I also had free space in my head to immerse myself in my own work again.

If you have some tips on how you free the clutter from your life in order to create, I’d love to hear them. Please feel free to share them in the contents section of this post.

Like this:

In real life, I don’t like conflict. I don’t like arguing with people, I don’t like fighting and I don’t like confrontation. In fact, I actively avoid it.

But when it comes to writing, there’s no getting around it. There has to be conflict. There has to be two opposing forces pulling against each other.

To create conflict in my stories, I have to hurt my character’s feelings, I have to put them in difficult situations, in physical and emotional danger. I have to be mean to them … I have to do all these things to make readers care about them.

So if conflict doesn’t come naturally to you, how do you put your characters in a conflict situation?

When I was doing my Professional Writing and Editing Diploma at Victoria University, author and teacher extraordinaire, Sherryl Clark said to us, “Think of the worst thing that can happen to your character, and make something even worse happen to them.”

And that’s exactly how you get to the depth of your character and who they are. How your character handles conflict affects what happens next in your story, and how readers relate to them.

So if you want conflict in your story, you need to know your characters, what they are fighting for, and who they are fighting against.

To create conflict, one character’s views and goals must collide with another character’s.

There are two kinds of conflict – external and internal – and you need them both in your story.

External conflict

External conflict is what happens outside your character and internal conflict is the struggle that goes on inside them.

External conflict is what makes your story exciting. It’s where the action in your story comes from. It’s the obstacles and events your character must overcome.

Internal conflict

Internal conflict is what enables the reader to feel like they know your character. Internal conflict is what makes the reader care about your character and what happens to them. It’s what makes the reader invest emotionally in your story.

Internal conflict can be the disparity between what a character thinks they want and what they really want. It can be caused by your character having to choose what’s right and wrong.

In forthcoming posts I’ll be blogging more about conflict.

I’ll also be presenting a workshop in Brisbane at the CYA Conference on 2nd July where I’ll be providing some practical tips on how to put your characters into conflict. Bookings for the conference can be made through the CYA website.

Look forward to seeing you there.

If you can’t make it, I look forward to seeing you back here at DeeScribe Writing.

Do you struggle being mean to your characters or are you one of those people who loves putting their characters in difficult situations? Feel free to share your experiences and tips in the comments section of this post.

One of my groups meets for four hours every week, and it’s fabulous. We’re all serious about our craft, and work hard not just on our own writing but on helping each other achieve our goals.

As well as good writing, we appreciate good food 🙂

We’re an ecclectic mix of novelists, screenwriters, playwrights, short story writers, poets and YA and kidlit authors. Having such a diverse group means that feedback is always unique and fresh.

But in the early days of our group, the feedback could sometimes be overwhelming.

When it’s an early draft and you get pages and pages of ‘track changes’ it can be a bit disheartening and sometimes confusing – especially when those ‘track changes’ are contradictory.

Our group discussed this at length and talked about how we could make the feedback more constructive.

We all agreed that you don’t actually need a detailed edit on your first draft. All you need to know is the big picture stuff … things like, does the reader engage with the character, does the story keep the reader turning the pages, are there logic problems or inconsistencies?

ASK FOR THE FEEDBACK YOU NEED

So now when we’re doing a first draft, that’s exactly what we ask for – only the feedback we need at that point in the writing process.

In fact, no matter what stage we are in our work, we always ask for specific feedback.

This has two major benefits. The first one is that it makes us think critically about our own writing. The second benefit is that it allows us to focus on revising certain aspects of our story rather than being overwhelmed by the feeling that that everything is wrong with every part of the story.

Different drafts really do require different kinds of feedback.

It’s also just as important to give positive and complimentary responses to a writer’s work. This helps them know what’s working in the story so they can keep doing it.

I’m going to be discussing giving and receiving effective feedback in more detail at my workshop at the upcoming CYA Conference in Brisbane on July 2.

If you have special critiquing methods/processes that work for you and your writer’s group, I’d love to hear about them.

Like this:

This blog has been sadly neglected In the last few months, but being involved in the organising of the KidLitVic2016 Meet The Publishers conference has taken up a huge slice of my time.

It was an inspiring event at which I got to connect with so many wonderful writers and illustrators and publishing professionals.

So here’s what happened. Alison Reynolds, Nicky Johnston, Jacquelyn Muller and I organised an event at the State Library of Victoria that was attended by 11 amazing publishers and one fabulous literary agent, and 160 wonderful authors and illustrators. Michael Wagner was our warm, funny and thoughtful panel moderator, Ian Robinson kept us entertained and informed as MC, and Coral Vass was a dynamic, very competent and welcome addition to our team on the day.

Thanks to our amazing faculty including:

Elise Jones

Allen & Unwin

Maryann Ballantyne

Black Dog Books/Walker

Suzanne O’Sullivan

Hachette

Lisa Berryman

HarperCollins

Marisa Pintado

Hardie Grant Egmont

Jacinta di Mase

Literary Agent

Michelle Madden

Penguin

Kimberley Bennett

Random House

Clare Hallifax

Scholastic

Miriam Rosenbloom

Scribble/Scribe

Jane Pearson

Text Publishing

Melissa Keil

The Five Mile Press

With writerly friends, Christina Booth and Sheryl Gwyther

To be honest the whole day was a whirl. There were four panels at which publishing professionals discussed picture books, illustrations, chapter and middle grade books and YA.

A highlight for me was meeting Clare Halifax, the wonderful publisher of my new book for kids aged 9+ due out next year.

I also loved hearing about what publishers were looking for and what authors and illustrators need to do in order to get noticed/published.

Thanks to my writerly friends, Bren MacDibble, Candice Lemon-Scott, Sheryl Gwyther and Kelly McDonald who took notes for me. So here are some tips from the conference:

Wonderful to finally meet Kelly McDonald.

SOME TIPS ON WHAT PUBLISHERS ARE LOOKING FOR

Humour, weird off-centre.

Picture books with girl characters.

Stories that tell a child something about themselves.

Authors should find out what publishers are publishing and target those who best suit your work. This information can be found by looking at the books on a publisher’s website, in libraries and bookstores.

5-7 year old characters need to simply overcome an obstacle, but they must get more complex as character and readership get older.

Be specific about the role of each character and what they are trying to achieve.

Books where the author is in touch with their inner child.

Always room for a good book, no matter what the trends.

Voice is what hooks publishers and readers in.

The story that you had to write … that comes from the heart. Not written to meet a ‘trend’.

Now that the conference is over, I’m right back into writing, and I’ll be posting regularly again.

If you were at the KidLitVIc2016 conference, feel free to share your tips and experiences in the comments section of this blog.